Protesters arrested as chaos descends on CBD

By Megan Levy and Benjamin Preiss

Riot police have stormed the Occupy Melbourne camp, arresting protesters at City Square on a chaotic day in Swanston Street, with the city still blocked.

Assistant Commissioner Stephen Fontana said up to 20 people had been arrested, and several protesters were injured with one taken to hospital.

A bleeding protester shouts as riot police move in to remove Occupy Melbourne protesters from City Square.Credit:Jason South

Angry scuffles broke out in the middle of the CBD, blocking trams and drawing hundreds of protesters and spectators swarming onto the road. Police on horseback were used to try to disperse the crowd.

Assistant Commissioner Fontana said 150 police arrived at the square this morning but the number grew to 400 later in the day.

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A man is dragged out of City Square by force.Credit:Megan Levy

About 100 Occupy Melbourne demonstrators, who had camped out in the City Square for a week as part of global protests against corporate greed, defied an order to leave by 9am.

A huge police contingent, including the riot squad, started dragging protesters out of the square about 11.30am and cleared the area within 10 minutes.

Officers were dragging people along the ground and carrying others by their arms and legs and loading them into the back of police vans en masse while threats of arrest were met with chants of "we can't hear you!".

While they were being cheered on by the crowd, protesters - still linking arms - retreated, with some crying and others clearly terrified.

City Square has now been cleared of protesters, however hundreds of protesters have been forced to the middle of the intersection at Swanston and Bourke Streets, blocking trams through the CBD.

Police detain a man in City Square as other officers hold the crowd back.Credit:Megan Levy

Greens MP Adam Bandt, the federal member for Melbourne, said calling on the riot police to intervene was a serious error by political leaders.

"[Premier] Ted Baillieu and [Lord Mayor] Robert Doyle have made a huge blunder by sending in the police, turning a week-long non-violent protest into a site of confrontation," Mr Bandt said.

A man is dragged from City Square by police.Credit:Jason South

"The authorities should have negotiated with the protestors before resorting to heavy handed pressure.

"By their actions, the Premier and Lord Mayor have moved the situation from negotiation to conflict and have hardened peoples' positions."

Assistant Commissioner Fontana denied police used excessive force in breaking up the protest.

"We don't really want to engage in this sort of activity but we're not going to back down either," Mr Fontana said.

"We're trying to use the minimum amount of force as possible.

"They've [protesters] had more than ample time to make their point in terms of what their protest is about and I think it's time to give the City Square back to the citizens of Melbourne."

Officers in riot gear stormed the makeshift tent city at the corner of Swanston and Collins streets at 11.30am, forcibly removing protesters from the square after about 100 defied a 9am eviction order from Melbourne City Council.

Officers have begun to remove protesters from City Square.Credit:Jason South

Within minutes, police and contractors had torn down tents and moved items from the camp to the end of the compound.

One police officer told The Age they had to dispose of buckets of urine found in the tents.

A protester shouts at police.Credit:Pat Scala

"They don't have a court room big enough," the protesters shouted at the first arrests were made.

Two others were also removed in the chaos, with police horses moving to the entrance of the camp.

An officer confronts protesters in City Square.Credit:Jason South

One man was grabbed by police and dragged by his arms and legs outside the barrier. About five men and women who refused to budge were also carried, kicking and yelling, from the scene.

Hundreds of people, including school children, are now lining Swanston and Collins streets watching the drama, with some chanting "the whole world is watching".

An Occupier holds up a sign. Protesters have called for people to join them at 9am.Credit:Megan Levy

Police wearing helmets and carrying riot shields first moved into the square about 9.40am when the protesters, who are part of a global anti-greed movement spurred by the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations in New York, tried to barricade themselves inside the camp, where they had spent the past six days. They also built a wall using upturned chairs, shelves and tables salvaged from the camp.

Some tents were dismantled, which organisers said would be erected at a new location soon.

Melbourne City Council officers arrived at the square at 7am to tell the group they had two hours to pack up and leave. Pamphlets were also handed out.

The council says the protest and occupation fails to comply with the council's Activities Local Law 2009, by camping in the square and hanging or placing objects over it.

Cr Doyle said traders were suffering and events planned for the square had been disrupted by the week-long demonstration. But Nick Carson, a spokesman for Occupy Melbourne, vowed that "people will stay".

"People will be arrested," he said, as protesters around him chanted "We are the 99 per cent".

Earlier, organisers used loudspeakers to urge the protesters to call everyone they knew to join the protest before the 9am deadline and passed around marker pens to write the mobile phone number of a legal service on their arms in preparation for arrest.

Mr Doyle this morning said authorities were ready if the situation got "ugly".

"[The protesters] have been saying all throughout the week... that when lawfully asked to move, they would vacate the square. Well, we've given them a fair go. We've allowed them to make their point."

"The time has come for us to return City Square to the people of Melbourne."

Mr Doyle said a fence would be used to try to keep others from joining the protest at the makshift camp, which he said had been taken over by "professional protesters" in recent days.

While some protesters packed up their tents in the rain and moved on, most remained steadfast.

Passers-by watched the unfolding drama from the neighbouring Starbucks coffee outlet, where they turned chairs outside the front of the store to face the action.

However at 8.30am, as yet more police moved in, Starbucks staff began packing up and said the store was closing.

A woman who demanded to be allowed entry to the protest was blocked by police.

Angry protesters began shouting and shaking fences as she was taken away by police.

Lachlan Gifford, an Occupy Melbourne spokesman, said the protest would spring up in other public places in Melbourne if they were forcibly removed.

"What Robert Doyle hasn't figured out yet is that, regardless of what happens here today, and even if the police and Robert Doyle are successful (in removing them), this won't be the end of it," he said.

"Eviction is a very short term thing.

"We will move next door to the church. This is going to get bigger in one way or another.

"There's this underlying dissatisfaction. People are not happy about the gap between haves and the have nots."